Natural-food fans and juicers should be aware of Listeria risk

Mar. 18, 2014 10:08 AM

Written by

Maggie O'Neill, Health Source writer

Infants, pregnant women, adults older than 60 and people with weakened immune systems are the most susceptible to Listeria infection. But health-conscious people who follow a raw food diet, drinking unpasteurized milk and juicing can open themselves to risk.

Unpasteurized milk has not been heated to high temperatures to help kill bacteria and whole, unwashed fruits used in juicing can cause infection if the fruit is contaminated.
“It’s the skin of a fruit that can be contaminated with the bacteria,” said Doris Dimmitt, hospital epidemiologist at Carson Tahoe Hospital. “When you are looking at ways to protect yourself from Listeria, you’ll want to be sure to wash your fruits and vegetables very well.”

Listeria monocytogenes is a bacterium found in soil and water. It can spread to humans through contaminated produce, meat and unpasteurized dairy products, causing a listeriosis infection and often the need for hospitalization, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Diarrhea, a stiff neck, fever, muscle aches and flu-like symptoms can result. Listeria infection can lead to meningitis, which can be particularly risky for infants, or cause miscarriage or stillbirth among pregnant women. Healthy people generally are at less risk.

“This doesn’t mean that someone who is normally healthy can’t get the infection, but it is typically rare,” Dimmitt said.

About 1,600 become infected with Listeria every year and about 260 people die annually from it, according to the CDC. The infection is the third leading cause of death through food poisoning.

“The symptoms are really pretty severe,” Dimmit said.

In recent years there are been a few outbreaks on a regional and/or national level. As late as 2013, one death and one miscarriage resulted from a listeria outbreak, which was traced back to a farmstead cheese company out of Wisconsin, according to the CDC. In 2011, 33 people died from a Listeria outbreak that spread from cantaloupes shipped from a Colorado farm. As far back as 1998, listeria-contaminated deli meats and hot dogs caused the deaths of 21 people.

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“Carson City has not seek a case of this in a very long time,” Dimmitt said. “Years. Usually when it does happen, it’s almost always related to some kind of outbreak.”

By washing and cleaning fruits, cooking meats to proper temperatures, and selecting pasteurized milk and juices, the chance of infection from listeriosis can be reduced or eliminated. Parents buying unpasteurized apple cider, like from a roadside stand, can put their children at risk, she said.

“You have to remember that pasteurization is done for a reason,” said Dimmit. “It’s done to kill these bacteria and make our juices and milk safe. There are a lot of diseases that used to be common in humans that went totally away or became rare when we began pasteurizing our dairy products and juices.”

The CDC recommends people wash their hands with warm water and soap for 20 seconds before handling a melon and again for 20 seconds afterward. Opened packages of hot dogs should be kept for no longer than a week, and opened packages of cold cuts for no longer than three to five days, recommends the CDC.

Spills from raw meat and poultry immediately should be cleaned up in a refrigerator, particularly since Listeria monocytogenes can grow in a cold-temperature environment.

“Listeria can multiply and thrive at lower temperatures like at a refrigerator temperature,” Dimmitt said.

The CDC recommends the temperature in a refrigerator should be set at 40 degrees Fahrenheit or lower.